Battlebuses

o/

One thing I'm rather fond of in Battletech is the Poor Bloody Infantry. They tend to do not a whole lot in general, and were it not for their APC/IFV transports, they'd be purely filler as well. That said, I invariably have at least one platoon on the table just because. Every now and again, they even do damage to some of Hive Angel's units.

Of my currently fielded IFVs, the Maxim hover transport is the most versatile and most effective. It usually charges ahead and deploys some PBI in a forward position where they can start taking casualties almost immediately (which they usually do), and then wander off and make a general nuisance of itself. Indeed, in our last game (a battle report for which is being worked on I hear) you can see my maxim in it's old colors, doing just that. It didn't die (though it came damned close to it) and finished out the battle slinging SRMs at anything within range, while billowing smoke and floundering around on an almost completely shredded hover skirt.

I found a Fa Shih battle armor 'survivor' from past Capellan armies, and am using it to represent a squad of Gray Death battle armor. Only having 1 mini, and never being impressed with battle armor (nor the Fa Shih in particular), so i see no reason to buy the PDF for more BA types. Whereas the gray death standard is available free. As you can see, I've painted the BA and Maxim in the colors of the 3rd Royal Guards so that they can support my 'God Squad' assault lance. Of all of my IFVs, the Maxim is the only one that can transport battle armor, and my other 2 units don't have access to battle armor, hence the new paint jobs.

lol, the maxim's colors remind me of a tropical fish I had in my old saltwater aquarium.

The 3rd Royals (unlike its sister Regimental Combat Teams) is actually sent out to fight. Whereas the other royal RTCs hang out on the Lryan capital world, polishing boots, marching around in parade fashion, and looming over the royal throne in a most intimidating fashion. All under the pretense of guarding the capitol. It worked great till the Wobblies arrived out of nowhere and nuked the planet from orbit. Yeah, great way to advance a ground based mini game, but i digress...anyways, they have a fairly respectable history aside from one ugly 'friendly fire' incident. However all the killed were some Nova Cats, and nobody likes those, right Screech?

Camouflaged RVs, huzzah!

Going back to my beloved Capellans, I painted up a pair of Packrat Long Range Patrol Vehicles for them the other night. The Cappys' have access to the SRM2 variant, which is basically an APC with the capacity to hold a full platoon. They can use most of the other Packrat variants, but those are basically just fast moving SRM6 launchers, so the APC version will probably be the only version I ever use. As such, my OMG! and WTF? platoons have found permanent residence in the Capellan 3rd CRC.

Unfortunately, these paint jobs leave my largest unit, the Legion of the Rising Sun and their famed BBQ! platoon (the 2nd photo) without any IFV transport of their own. In our last game, we used some Manticore MBTs and found the vehicle crit chart isn't as harsh as expected when the armor is heavier and its not a hover tank. So I ordered a blister of Goblin IFVs which will go to the Legion.

As Mercs, they 'technically' only have access to the IFV version of the Goblin. That said, its good enough as an urban MBT to not really even need the capacity to carry an infantry platoon around. However the Legion originated in the Draconis Combine, and the Combine has access to the older Goblin versions as well. Those Goblins only carried a single squad (and that ability will thus be ignored) and acted as fairly effective, if a bit generic MBT/Fire Support units.

Aside from the goblins which are somewhere in the mail, all of my PBI and armor units are painted, so now I can go back to painting mechs (which is what I ought to have been painting in the first place).

Soooo-eeeey!!!

lol, no that's not the Stirland battle cry.

Well, not normally anyways. However when my court Jester/army mascot is on the field, it might be. While I've only just base coated the rider, yesterday I finished his pig mount:

This really was a fun model to paint, and the rider is quite comical as well!

I've switched his mocking identity though. Rather than making fun of a visiting representative of the Emperor in Altdorf, mainly because Leichburg is such a backwater that no one in Altdorf would have ever heard of it. Oh it might be on a tattered old map buried in the official Imperial archives somewhere, but that's the best that my army of Leichberg could hope for. However looking at the Fluff for Stirland, one thing that has always been a sore point of contention is the Moot.

When the Moot was created, it took a goodly portion of Stirland's best farmland with it, and Stirlanders have always been bitter about this. Thus, with the Moot's colors being green and red, the jester and his mount will represent the Moot's political leader: Elder Stoutfart (yes really, that's how its pronounced...lol).

...and in other news...

I got in three games last week, though sadly my beloved Orks went 0:2. First up was a smallish 750 point game (I say' smallish' as the green tide never is) with a foot slogging green tide vs. my GF who was again fielding my CSMs. She wasn't pleased feeling it was a technical win, but a win is a win (though I also don't like technical wins). Then da' boyz loaded up in every transport they could find, and brought along a few looted wagons for good measure to take on theBob's Dark Angels. All was going well till they realized that they had flanked da' oomies. Whenever I flank my enemies I lose. Which means that once again, I did.

So much for tactical maneuvers...

Skipping back to Friday night, Hive Angel and I had decided on an urban warfare Battletech game after I posted my urbanmech in the previous post. Ironically though, the Urbie wasn't used in the game it spawned. He took plenty of photos, and a battle report will be forthcoming (provided he doesn't lose all of his notes this time...). Much fun was had into the wee hours of the morning, and i was kinda zombie-like for most of Saturday as a result. It was all good though.

Urbanhell

o/

In the war torn battlefields of of the Battletech universe, the battlemech is 'king' (unless someone fields a Demolisher II, then its debatable as it will draw ALL of the enemy's fire till its DEAD). However as a mechwarrior, if you find that at any point you're assigned to an Urbanmech....well, either you've really pissed somebody off, or they just plain hate you to begin with. No worries though, your time in an Urbie (their most common nickname) will be short. Or rather i should phrase that as your life will be short...

It even comes with a 'We regret to inform you...' letter!

The Urbie is (ironically) one of Battletech's iconic mechs, and mainly for two reasons:

(1) It sucks. Mud slow, thin armor, notta whole lot of ammo for the main gun (which, considering the thin armor protection, might not be so bad), crappy small laser for a back up weapon, a medium ranged gun on a chassis designed for point blank combat (which creates minimum range issues), an extra heat sink which wastes valuable space, variants with an even bigger gun coupled with even less armor... Seriously, it was the worst mech bar none til they invented semi-combat capable industrial mechs which are civilian use mechs with added weaponry.

(2) It looks kinda like R2-D2 with big legs...or in other words, its ugly as hell. Now, there are countless mechs vying for the title of 'ugliest ever' and to be honest, I don't think the Urbie leads that pack. At the very minimum, the Blitzkrieg and Shootist are well ahead of it. Indeed, I saw a mech that was even worse than those on ebay last night! It was so vile I didn't even want to know the name of it! Regardless, people love the urbie, due almost entirely to its shortcomings. Indeed, there are even petitions to get it added into the new Mechwarrior online MMO (and while he'll never publicly admit it, we all know Screech's name is all over those petitions).

The Curious thing about the Urbie, is that while the canon variants all suck (barring perhaps the MRM30 version), if you put it into Skunkwerks (Battletech's create your own mech software), strip out the stupid autocannon and replace it with a large pulse laser (which makes complete sense for urban warfare), and its actually kindova decent mech. There's enough left over tonnage to max out the armor (which for a light mech will always be of questionable value) and a bigger engine to increase its speed by 50%! Yank its jump jets, swap to a standard large laser, put an even bigger engine in and at that point, its a decent all-rounder. Even for recon which is the generic light mech specialty.

The only thing I can't figure out is why the creators of battletech never did that. It seems like their intent was not only to make it suck, but to keep it that way. Cheap, podunk defense unit fluff, yada, yada, still don't see why the  large laser wouldn't work as it works better at short range and the podunks won't need to buy ammo.

...shrugs...

Like most people who have them, I got it precisely because its so bad. That and its painted to go with my Capellans who have a fondness for cheaper crap as for most of their history they were on the defensive. You'll note its camo is anything but 'urban'. The 3rd Confederation Reserve Cavalry, while currently posted to a world of mostly wide open plains (which makes the Urbie suck even more), was previously posted to a jungle environment, where it would have been a decent machine...sorta. Regardless, they haven't gotten around to repainting their machines yet (according to Camospecs).

Guns. Ammo. Donuts, and me.

I was perusing Hasslefree miniatures' Modern Adventurers series the other day, I was wondering what you would do with all of the seemingly random minis it contained (other than to just live on the shelf).  Then I saw this mini, his name is 'Tony (b)' and the light went off: They're RPG minis.

Reversed baseball cap, aviator sunglasses, short pants, over sized pistols and too much ammo, and he's over weight to boot, lol. Amused, his story just kind of wrote itself. Here it is:

Guns. Ammo. Donuts, and me. 

That's all that's needed to maintain the Emperor's peace.

That fine 'treatise' on Imperial Law (Look out Ravenor!) was penned by the none-to-imaginative Tony, a former denizen of the almost lawless society of Gunmetal City on Scintilla. Once employed in the 'loss prevention' department of one of the citiy's many foundries, Tony came to the attention of the Inquisition when one of their secure and capture raids went awry. The quarry, known as [CLASSIED] entered the foundry of Tony's employment in an attempt to elude capture. However [CLASSIFIED] was discovered soon thereafter, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and drowning in his own blood. Meanwhile Tony was rooting thru his pockets searching for stolen 'product'.

Tony was taken in for questioning in regards to his sudden involvement in the incident. Mainly in an attempt to salvage something from the debacle. [CLASSIFIED] was the best (and now very dead) lead in a now ruined 3 year investigation of a guns-for-heretics smuggling operation. Tony's simple minded devotion to his duty (as it gave him even more of a justification to shoot people than that of the average Metallican) lead to the obvious conclusion that he shot [CLASSIFIED] well before asking any questions.

Nominally one of Gunmetal City's 'Regulators' (what passes for local law enforcement), Tony was little more than an employed Thug/Gunslinger. However, in light of the failed operation, the Inquisition suddenly had a few openings into their roster and Tony was hired to offer him the chance to 'repent for his failure to the Inquisition.'  His new team however isn't so sure that its either Tony's simple minded outlook on his 'guilt' or the license to kill people outside of Gunmetal City that won him over to their cause. No, they (rightly) believe that it's the Inquisition's access to a seemingly endless supply of all of the deep fried, sugar glazed and jelly filled confections that Scintilla has to offer. Needless to say, it doesn't take an Inquisitor to notice Tony's ever expanding waistline...

lol, as you can tell, I miss playing Dark Heresy. We need to fix that Neverness and Red Bird...

Magos Diabolicus

o/

I took a break from my mind numbingly repetitive 'old school marine' painting to work on some Chaos cultists. The only issue I have with the new cultist minis are their two champions. A power weapon option would have been nice, but I guess those are taken away by their CSM overlords lest they get get kinda uppity and try and stab a CSM in the back.

Plus, I don't like the fact one just has 2 CCWs. True a laspistol isn't much, but he ought to at least have a gun (the shotgun toting former Commissar is decent at least i guess). Anyways, the other day I noticed that at some point in time I had ordered the Cadian Command squad bitz, and so used them to turn the champion with the 2 CCWs into a low level functionary of the Dark Mechanicus. Thus he is now a Magos Diabolicus:

I guess his power sword no longer works as such. I'm sure the Dark Mechanicus has realized just how pointless it is to chant and burn incense in an attempt to get a machine to work. For a gun, he now has a laspistol servo-skull with a silencer!  I'm thinking that his squad will get a Mark of Tzeentch, as the 6+ save will be sort of a throw back to the bionics saves of old.

I ordered another squad of 10 with autoguns via ebay, to make a nice blob of 20 to support The Purge and Blood Eagles. I'm still painting them in blue and gray as a pseudo Tyrant's Legion to be lead around by my lone Red Corsair 'Centurion' (CSM Lord) who's on a standard GW 25mm base. Here's a few more of them:

This brings me up to 5 painted Legion auxiliaries.

The Cultists with the pistols and CCWs will go with the Red Corsairs via the bases that were recently vacated by the plague bearers and daemonettes (and were subsequently given to Murl).  $50 is a bit much to spend on a codex just to use 16 minis. Harold will instead be used as a sorcerer and will lead his new band of cultists. The Red Corsairs meanwhile will treat them as the cannon fodder that they are, much like they did when Harold was leading the daemons.

The state of war in the Appalachian sub-sector.

o/

My fairly 'generic' horde of loyalist spess mahreenz has gone for a bit of a switch here recently. I've split my forces into two roughly even sized forces, one of the Storm Wardens, and one of the Dark Angels' reserve companies. Really I only wanted the Dark Angels as allies, but most are still only primed and as i prime both forces in the same color, the individual army proportions may vary some in the future.

The real reason for my DA contingent (aside from being green) is that I wanted some flakk missiles so I wouldn't have to haul fortifications around. That and due to the old (and by most everyone else's standards fugly) 2nd ed minis, the total army cost was a mere $40 for the codex (yay, store credit!).

However as you all know, I'm a fluff bunny at heart and would prefer a more interesting back story for my guys than 'I just wanted flakk missiles'. Thus, I came up with the following:

Date: 714.M41:

After being thrown 20,000 light years off course by the Hadex Anomaly, the Storm Wardens' Strike Cruiser Glendwyr's Lament and the embarked 4th Company has since been engaged in the cleansing of the 'Southern reaches' of the Appalachian sub-sector during which it has fought all manner of foul denizens and adversaries. The continuous fighting on multiple worlds has left the 4th Company in a woeful state, with heavy casualties, and their consumables and supplies running low. To make matters worse, the 4th's charismatic leader, Captain 'I killed Draigo' was recently laid low by the woefully infected blade of the infamous Chaos Lord Miasmos, leader of the Purge warband. While he will recover…eventually, the Captain will not be fit for battle for the foreseeable future. Command had fallen to the company's librarian whom was relegated to ship borne duties only as he also is recovering from extensive wounds suffered in combat.

With the 4th Company effectively leaderless, and pushed almost to the breaking point, the Lament sent forth an astropathic missive to Sacris, the Storm Warden's home world, in hopes of a recall to return and rebuild the company. Word returned to 'hold the line' till resupply and reinforcements were sent. The 4th however was little reassured as at least seven full companies of the Storm Wardens are currently involved in the Achilus Crusade. Still, they scaled back operations and continued to persecute the Imperium's enemies wherever and whenever they could under their current circumstances.

After approximately one Terran year, the small Rogue Trader Divinity rendezvoused with the Lament. Much needed supplies and stores were taken aboard to replenish the Strike Cruiser's stocks. However of the the promised reinforcements, only but one Marine had arrived. Captain Ozwald D'Kraken, recently returned from his exile with the Inquisition's Deathwatch.

My recently updated D'Kraken model. Its fitting that his colors now match the army he inspired.

During his exile, D'Kraken had been elevated from battle brother, to the rank of Captain by that secretive institution. His honors and the actions which earned him that rank, are entirely unknown to all aside from the Deathwatch and D'kraken himself. However, he has been silent about his past actions in service of the Deathwatch per Inquisitorial order.

Having left the Storm Wardens under suspicion after his brief service in both the 10th and 6th companies, D'Kraken wasn't expected to ever return to his home Chapter. Just why he did return is only known to the Inquisition and Chapter Master Maclir, However D'Kraken was issued with an Inquisitorial decree absolving him of any past suspicions due to his time of service. With the Crusade requiring the Maclir's full attention, D'Kraken's return was an unwanted inconvenience. However, the 4th's call for assistance came shortly thereafter, and the Chapter Master sent his unwanted charge off to lead the beleaguered 4th Battle Company.

Needless to say, the 4th Company  wasn't too pleased with their new commander, his past reputation, or their current overall situation. Yet holding true to their respect of the chain of command and their loyalty to their Chapter Master, D'Kraken was given command of the 4th despite their misgivings. Many of the 4th's survivors fear D'Kraken was sent to them in hopes he would die before he returned home again. Readings of the Emperor's tarot by the company's librarian has raised the concern over whether or not the remaining members of the 4th company will be sacrificed in that endeavor.

Chapter Master Maclir's orders to D'Kraken were to press the attack on all fronts, yet on his arrival, he was to find the 4th down to a little less than 20% of operational combat strength. Used to small unit actions, D'Kraken was undeterred, however engaging in large scale warfare with so few marines was a challenge he was not prepared for, that however, is when additional help arrived from an unexpected ally...

The 4th's request for assistance had been intercepted by the Dark Angels, who's recent arrival and subsequent operations within the Appalachian sub-sector have increased substantially. Though to what purpose no one outside the chapter knows. Their sudden appearance as if from nowhere has garnered much attention of the regional Imperial institutions, and has left the Dark Angels with much unwanted scrutiny.

Sensing an opportunity Supreme Commander Azreal, dispatched a small contingent of the 6th and 9th reserve companies to bolster the Storm Warden's 4th company as a sort of 'good will' gesture. On arrival however, this 'small contingent' of Dark Angels soon realized that it out numbered the Storm Wardens considerably. The initial meeting with Captain D'Kraken was about as cold as are his relations with his own company, due to his extensive Inquisitorial service. D'Kraken, taking a pragmatic approach to the situation, allowed the Dark Angels to assume overall command. The logic being that due to their superior numbers and fresh troops, it only made sense to take the lead role in the Storm Warden's campaign. Henceforth, the depleted Storm Wardens would take on a supporting role. 

The Storm Wardens are known for their stubborn pride and the 4th Company as a whole was outraged by the usurpation of their campaign by their new allies (logic be damned!). As a result, D'kraken has already earned the enmity of his new brethren. Grumblings among the remnants of the 4th that D'Kraken is unfit for command are starting to be heard and morale is being sorely tested because of it...

In their first battle with both the Dark Angels and D'Kraken in charge, they got pasted by Murl's dread forces of Nurgle. It would seem that these new commanders are nothing but a bunch of amateurs...lol.

D'Kraken leading a Tactical Squad to its doom. The Dark Angels meanwhile, seem to shun the camera's lens...

Tabled by my girlfriend...what the hell?!?!

Yes folks, my record of losing mini games to women continues on unblemished...lol.

Anyways, my GF has been wanting to play a game after Murl came over and explained the rules as he and I played a game some weeks back. Murl's really good at explaining things as he owns a fast food restaurant, and his many years of teaching the continuous stream of new employees how to do their jobs.

The battlefield and opposing forces.

So, i set up a half sized battlefield, with 750 points of Storm Wardens (my side) to fight an equal sized army of The Purge (her side). She finds marines of anything other than the chaos variety totally unappealing, so CSMs seemed to be the easiest faction to start her off with (she really likes Tau, however I only have 2 Tau models).

 No scenario, just a straight up 'kill each other' game. Dawn of war deployment (w/o night fight, to keep it simple). Her warlord got Hatred incarnate (and every other form of hatred that is available on the chaos boons table as the game wore on), and mine got outflank. Again, for simplicity, i just had him run with the shotgun scouts who were already going to outflank.

And what follows is my usual post battle photo dump with occasional highlights and commentary:

Checking line of sight for the predator hidden in that ruin..

Turn one started of uneventfully aside from both sides closing quickly.

'Her Majesty' looking as neglected as she can while at the same time, remaining as comfortable as was possible. Needless to say, her efforts to make us feel guilty for playing 40k instead of with her didn't work...

The 'enemy' enjoys having scored first blood via my rhino.

A no-frills combat squad of tactical marines really shouldn't engage Plague marines in close combat...

My flanking maneuver stalls and summarily fails as Captain 'I killed Draigo's' power sword is all but useless vs. Miasmos' termie armor. The scouts meanwhile were wading thru cultists with mixed results.

The scout sergeant fought to the end, but his cause was lost.

After the loss of my predator, the last Storm Warden survivors contemplate their demise...

...and as you can see, this was their demise!

...and uh, yeah. That was that, tabled on turn 7. Still was fun a fun game and towards the end she seemed to have a good handle on the rules. The quote of the night was 'next time I'm bringing my dice'.

Yup, she's a gamer!

...and now for something completely useless...

o/

Having recently spent most of my painting time on marines and Eldar, I felt like painting something 'different' yesterday. Given the near continuous snow flurries over the course of the weekend, I considered painting the Grymn and their snow colored armor. However with my recent purchase of That Swine from Altdorf (see my previous post), I decided to paint some Empire minis.

Like the title says: Something useless.

I still have no real desire to play WHFB, especially with Matt Fucking Ward having written the latest Daemon army book. I would imagine that he just broke 8th ed WHFB to the level that the daemons did in 7th ed., because, you know...he has no concept of balance.

Regardless, I do like my Stirlanders and so I painted the trio above up yesterday. Nothing spectacular, but then again, it is Stirland, lol. Perhaps one day we'll get all of the local Empire armies together to give 8th ed a go, but that's not on anyone's agenda for the foreseeable future.  That or I could use them in another Mordheim warband and just hope that they don't suck as much as my previous Stirland warband did.

Above is my archer regiment as a whole, and arrayed in their proper skirmish formation. With the exception of my general's pistol, and engineer Nick Nolte's blunderbuss, they represent the entirety of the ranged 'firepower' (stop laughing) of my Stirland army.

The metal lives...(army list/brochure and some other stuff).

o/

Just a quick post about 2 things.

First off, there was some inquiry to my mention of the Necrons which I fought at the 2006 Altanta Games Day. That Necron army took best appearance, due in part to the judge (as well as probably everyone else who got a copy) being blown away by the list, much less the army itself. I still have a copy of that army's list and have scanned it in for viewing below.

As I said yesterday, I played my Silver Skulls vs. this list in the first round and it was a good ol' fashioned slugfest which I ultimately lost. However my opponent was most entertaining to play against, his army was beautifully painted, and it even had green LEDs lit up inside the monolith. Sorry, I have no photos of his army, though if he reads this, I'm sure he'll be amused to know that copies of his list still do exist.

..and on a different note, my Daemons are going the way of ebay currently. Never really fond of them, I got a cheap codex for them after the lesser daemons got punted from the CSM codex. However what little I have doesn't justify the $50 codex, just for an allied contingent that I'm really not interested in. Harold will retain his name and instead become a Nurgle Sorcerer, who will instead lead some cultists around rather than some daemons.

With the first batch paid for, I've picked up a handful as dirt cheap 2nd ed marines to flesh out the Storm Wardens and add a bit more bulk to the Dark Angels. I also have a bid in on a battlemech, and just this morning I ordered this mini:

Note the hand on the end of the lance, which is giving the enemy the finger...

Hilarious model! I've already dubbed this guy 'That Swine from Altdorf' (he'll be painted accordingly) and he shall be my Stirland Army's mascot (counts as: BSB).